CULTURE- FRIDAYS UPDATE Decide: Catch Indecision while you can

Young'ns take note: if your band has been around for anything less than 25 years, Indecision guitarist David Ibbiken has a wisened veteran perspective on the music industry you might find helpful.

Decades ago, his band's members were peppered around local high schools, and the group got started at local parties before cracking the club scene at places like the Mineshaft.

"We tell people that our official beginning was in '84," says Ibbiken, at early gigs such as Red Light Management founder Coran Capshaw's annual "Van Riper's" festival out in Nelson County. They've spent the 20-odd years since as a local staple, and during the '80s and '90s, they shared the stage with peers who have turned into some of the top concert draws in the country.

"Hootie opened for us at one point, Phish opened for us, and Widespread opened for us," recalls Ibbiken. "Obviously that's not happening anymore."

"We were doing okay, but we couldn't make the jump," he admits. He's being modest– the band had a slot on the 2003 installment of the Bonnaroo music festival, the annual Tennessee mother-of-all-shindigs that has since grown into one of the biggest music events on the east coast.

"We certainly hadn't been part of anything quite that large," says Ibbiken. "We were definitely on one of the smaller stages, but just to have your name on that t-shirt with all those others was pretty cool."

More recently, Indecision has a small cameo in Live From The Hook, the movie about Charlottesville's music scene that was released last year at the Virginia Film Festival.

"If you go to the mid to late '70s, they obviously had some cool, homegrown music happening," says Ibbiken. "By the the early '80s, we were coming on the heels of Skip Castro and the Casuals.

"By the late '80s, some of those old bands tailed off, and we were just starting to hit our stride," he continues. "We kind of carried the torch a little bit there; as we tailed off, Dave Matthews took it up, and he obviously carried it all the way to the top."

Meanwhile, Indecision stoppped playing full time in 1993, opting instead for a luxurious occasional schedule that hardened road warriors can only dream of. Ibbiken says the band plays sporadic gigs around the Southeast about once a month.

Keep that in mind if you're still not sure whether you want to go– if you make the wrong choice, it'll cost you 30 days and a road trip to Charleston to recover.

Indecision plays Fridays After 5 Friday, June 1. Free, 5:30-ish at the Pavilion on the Downtown Mall.